


Box of Letters

by yutorin



Series: Tea & Lace-verse [2]
Category: Hey! Say! JUMP, Johnny's Entertainment
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Alternate Universe - Yakuza, M/M, Originally Posted on LiveJournal, Pen Pals, Prequel, You don't have to have read the first one to get this one, originally posted in 2014
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-07 19:30:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20822627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yutorin/pseuds/yutorin
Summary: Keito hadn't thought much would come of his middle school pen pal assignment. He had never been more wrong in his life.





	Box of Letters

Keito is in his last year of middle school when his homeroom teacher announces that they will be exchanging letters with another class of kids their own age from some other middle school in some other prefecture. She says it’s a good experience for them. She says it will help them learn how to communicate using the written word, and if nothing else, a few of them might even make a new friend. The kids all groan and complain, and though Keito stays silent, he agrees with the rest of them. This is a waste of time. It was two weeks before the winter break. They were all going to write one letter, and then they were going to forget, go off on holiday, and never hear from these kids they were writing to ever again. It was pointless.

Despite the protests, the teacher is bound and determined to make them write to these kids. Pen pals she calls them, as she passes out little slips of paper, each with a different name on them. The name you got was the name of the kid that you would be writing to. Keito looked down at his. Nakajima Yuto―a boy's name, to his utter relief. He didn't know what he would do if he'd gotten a girl's name. He didn't interact with girls. It wasn't that he had a prejudice against females; he just didn't know how to approach them. The only female in his life was his mother, and after his parents’ divorce earlier that year he wasn't even seeing her regularly.

Once each student had their assigned name, the teacher told them that the rest of class was to be spent composing letters to their pen pals. There was groaning, but the kids all pulled out blank sheets of paper, getting to work. They were told to write a self introductory letter. Tell their recipient about themselves; their families, and friends. Keito stared blankly at his empty page. What would he tell this kid? His biological family was broken, the divorce still an open wound that he didn't feel like discussing with a stranger. And then there was _the_ family.

It wasn't like he could tell his pen pal about _the_ family. He couldn't tell him about his father's profession, about the fact that he lived in a large private estate with a hoard of tattooed men that to the average person were the scourge of society. He couldn't tell this kid that his only friend was a man years older than themselves who's life duty was to take care of him. He couldn't tell him that it was his fate to become a king of the criminal world, as the only heir to his father's throne. He knew better than to talk carelessly about his yakuza affiliation. But it left him without much to say.

His letter to Nakajima Yuto ended up being extremely short. He told him that he was an only child, and that his best subject in school was English. He wrote about his favorite foods, and about how he hated seafood. He told him things that he thought were rather pointless, tiny details about himself. Things that he figured―while boring―couldn't incriminate his family in any way. He wrote the bare minimum, folding the page up and sliding it into the envelope provided by the teacher.

He wrote the other school's address on the front, specifying that it was for class 3A's Nakajima Yuto, depositing the finished product in his teacher's waiting hand at the end of class with all of the other kids' letters. He wasn't particularly proud of his creation. His letter was made with poor handwriting, and even more poor content. Not that it mattered all that much. He didn't think anything would come of this silly little project. Little did he know, Nakajima Yuto was going to be much more than a name on a slip of paper.

The whole class got responses to their letters the following week. Keito took his with mild curiosity, staring down at the envelope. The address was written in handwriting that was just as sloppy as his own, which made him smile a bit in relief. Nakajima Yuto had doodled a rather horrendous drawing of a fish on the envelope flap. The fish smiled up at him with huge, lopsided lips, and Keito took care not to rip through it as he opened the envelope, slipping out the response Nakajima Yuto had written to him.

Nakajima Yuto was much more interesting of a person than himself, Keito decided. The letter Yuto had written was nearly three times longer than his own. His pen pal's life sounded ideal. Yuto's parents were happily married, and he had a brother six years younger than himself that―as was shown through the great detail with which he was described―Yuto loved very much. Yuto used exclamation points at the end of nearly every sentence, his words radiating enthusiasm, and he told Keito that he was extremely excited about this pen pal idea.

Yuto told Keito all about his hobbies―he'd just taken up playing the drums―his favorite foods, his friends, and his family. He told Keito that his family was going to go snowboarding over the winter break, and that he couldn't wait. He told Keito many things about himself, and then he commented on the few things Keito had shared about himself. He asked Keito what his experience as an only child was like. He asked why he didn't like seafood. He asked all sorts of questions, and then at the end he told Keito he was eagerly waiting for his response.

Their teacher told them that they were to give her their second letters that following Monday, and Keito found to his own surprise that throughout the weekend he worked hard on his letter, trying to be more interesting this time. Trying to give adequate responses to Nakajima Yuto's questions. This other boy seemed to be genuinely excited about writing to him, and he didn't want to let this interesting boy down. And so, it was with just a hint of pride that he handed his teacher a three page response that Monday. It was the last week of school before the break.

Keito had nearly completely forgotten about his pen pal over the winter break. His break was extremely exciting. His father took him to attend negotiations with a neighboring clan's leaders over a border dispute. He also partook in the forceful obliteration of a rising gang of high school kids that were selling drugs in their territory. That was the first fight his father allowed him to participate in, and it resulted in him getting a split lip and a black eye, but it also gave him a sense of accomplishment. His uncles were all very proud of him, and his caretaker too seemed to be pleased. He was being accepted as more than a kid. He was part of the group, at home it was the first step to being more than simply the young master. But while Keito had all but forgotten Nakajima Yuto, Nakajima Yuto had done quite the opposite.

Keito returned to school after the break and was handed a stack of envelopes from his homeroom teacher. He stared down at the bundle in amazement, not sure what to think. It was nine letters in total, all from Nakajima Yuto. Some of the kids got a single response from their pen pals, but nearly half were empty handed. Keito didn't even have time to read any of the many letters he had received, his teacher jumping straight into a lesson. He shoved them into his bag, to read once he got home.

He spent hours that evening reading Nakajima Yuto's excited scrawl. The boy had chronicled his whole winter break for Keito, not only telling him about the events, but taking him through his thoughts and feelings about every event that had happened. His letters were rich, full of little opinions and half completed thoughts and questions about everything from Keito's favorite season, to when Keito thought asphalt was invented, to what colors that humans couldn't see looked like. He had written them throughout the break, and, judging by the stamps on the front of the envelopes, he had taken it upon himself to send them throughout his off time, instead of relying on his teacher to send them for him.

Keito was up until the early hours of the next morning working on his response. He wrote pages, commenting on Yuto's winter break and attempting to tell him about his own. He simplified everything down to a base level, writing that he'd attended a business meeting when trying to explain the territory negotiation his father had let him sit in on, and the battle he'd participated in was boiled down to a simple _scuffle._ Nothing could be put into much detail, but he tried to make the stories interesting. He wasn't very good at telling stories, he came to find, but he did his best, handing in a twelve page letter to his teacher the next morning, to her utter amazement. And so, like that it continued.

They wrote letters back and forth constantly, Keito receiving a new letter from his teacher at least once a week. He was surprised by how much he was enjoying the experience. Nakajima Yuto was fun to write to. The kid was so confident in himself, and so excited about everything he did, and he was overflowing with an optimism that Keito found to be contagious. He liked reading Yuto's descriptions of the happenings in his life, and he liked that the other boy always asked questions, Keito doing his best to answer them as thoughtfully as possible. It was nice, having someone his own age that communicated with him so much. Almost like having a friend.

The letters started coming less frequently as exam season came upon them. Yuto apologized once, explaining that he was studying hard to get into his dream school. Keito understood. He too was busy with studies, to his father's surprise. He had been told that he didn't have to attend high school. A yakuza boss didn't need a higher education. But he wanted to go, and experience what normal kids his age experienced, and so he was taking the entrance exam for the local high school. The letters sent between the two of them were filled with words of encouragement, Yuto telling him that he thought it was awesome that Keito had decided to go on to high school, despite a lack of outside motivation.

The week before Keito's entrance exam, he got a letter that simply read _YOU CAN DO IT!_ Yuto had doodled stick figures studying and cheering along the edges of the page, and Keito taped it up right next to his desk in his room, a smile on his face. They didn't hear from one another again until after both had taken their exams, Keito sending his pen pal back a page that simply read _I DID IT!_ Yuto's response was an extremely excited congratulations, he too declaring that he'd been accepted into the school he'd tested for. The words were punctuated with exclamation marks and little doodled stars, and Keito felt genuinely happy for the other boy when he learned of Yuto's success.

The school year quickly came to a close after that, and Keito was excited about graduating. He was looking forward to high school. He knew it would be exciting, a big step in his life, and he couldn't wait. The one thing that he was regretting would be his loss of communication with Yuto. The letters they wrote each other always went through their schools, and once they graduated they would no longer be able to write. He wasn't going to complain. This had just been an assignment. He enjoyed Yuto's letters, but the other boy surely had a busy life to look forward to; it would be selfish to try and keep this unknown kid tied to him.

But once again, Yuto surprised him. In his last letter, received only two days before graduation, Yuto had written out his home address, stating that he wanted to continue to keep up the communication. He told Keito that he liked talking to him, and he wanted to keep being friends. Keito stared down at the words, reading and rereading them, a huge smile on his face. He had a friend. A real friend his own age that liked him for who he was. A _friend_ that wanted to make the effort to keep in touch. He was overjoyed. And so, the day after graduation he sat down, and wrote Nakajima Yuto a letter, addressing it to Yuto's home address, and signing it with much anticipation _your friend, Keito._

Keito and Yuto's letter writing got to be less frequent once they were in high school. It was difficult to find the time. Yuto had joined a couple of clubs, he said, and between them, school, and cram school, he was constantly doing something. Keito too was busy. He wasn't in cram school, but he had joined one club. Calligraphy. He'd noticed the little flyer advertising it a few weeks into the school year, and he'd immediately thought of Yuto. He wanted to show Yuto his accomplishments. He wanted to be able to make their letters more than a means of communication. And so, he started attending meetings.

Outside of school was where Keito was the busiest however. He had been indicted as a fully fledged member of the clan halfway through his first year of high school, to his great pride. The ceremony had been elaborate, and exciting, and he had wanted to tell Yuto all about it, even writing the experience out once, before burning the pages. Just because Yuto was his friend now, that didn't mean that he would still accept Keito once he knew about his true identity. It wasn't just Yuto Keito had to worry about though. Now that he was indicted, he had his first tattoo, their family crest emblazoned on his right shoulder, marking him for life as one of them.

He had to cover it up, taking great care to hide it with a large adhesive bandage every morning before going to class. Changing out for physical education was always a nerve wracking experience, and he took care to hide in a corner, his back to the wall, just in case. It was easy to go unnoticed in class. He didn't have any friends, so no one paid much attention to him. Not that he was really looking for friends. He had his clan, and Yuto, and that was enough for him. Yuto seemed concerned about the fact that Keito wasn't making new friends in high school, but Keito always told him that he was fine, that all he needed was Yuto. Whenever he wrote that, Yuto would sign his responding letter with a little heart, the doodled shape making something in Keito's chest squeeze.

Time flew by, life carrying them along, and before Keito knew it winter break was upon him, and it had been a year since he'd started exchanging letters with Yuto. The occasion was marked by a large package, delivered to Keito a week into their winter break. His uncles all seemed very perplexed by the box. It was common knowledge in their estate that he had a pen pal, but most of them thought it was a girlfriend, or perhaps even his mother. They weren't the only ones surprised by the package. It had come without warning, and Keito stared at it a bit in disbelief when it was placed in his lap.

He opened it that evening after dinner, closing himself in his room with the box and carefully peeling away the packing tape. Inside was a letter written in Yuto's familiar handwriting, and with the letter were gifts, all packed in neatly with great care. Candies and books and cute school supplies surrounded an elaborate looking calligraphy set, complete with scrolls of fine paper for Keito to practice on. It was beautiful, and Yuto explained in his letter that he had seen it in an antique shop and simply knew that it was meant to be Keito's Christmas present.

Keito was extremely touched by the gift, and he wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he was just a bit choked up as he lifted the lid of the box and looked at the beautiful brushes inside. What had he done to deserve this? This was amazing. Yuto's gift was one of the most thoughtful things he had ever received. How was he ever going to repay him? He had to get Yuto a gift in return, he realized, and he immediately got to work brainstorming some perfect responding gift for his friend.

He eventually settled on a new, very nice pair of drumsticks, and a winter hat for when Yuto's family went snowboarding. It wasn't quite as perfect as the gift Yuto had gotten him, but he resolved that _next year_ he would make up for it. He made sure to include a proper thank you note in with the package. He wrote the thank you, and a separate more casual letter, using his new calligraphy set, hoping to show Yuto, not just tell him, how much sincerely he cherished his gift. He included in his package some candies and snacks, the same way Yuto had, little things the other boy had mentioned that he liked in the past year. He sent it out the week of Christmas, hoping that the package would make it on time.

Yuto informs him in the letter he gets a week into the new year that Keito's package had arrived on Christmas Eve. He gushes enthusiastically over the gifts, and he tells Keito how surprised he was to receive Keito's formal thank you note. He also asks Keito about his Christmas and New Year holidays, informing Keito of every detail of his own. Keito read Yuto's stories from his vacation enthusiastically, detailing them all to his caretaker one evening when poor Shoon asked just what it was he was reading. He sits down the next day and spends hours with his calligraphy set, chronicling his own winter break as best he can, writing and rewriting it until everything is good enough.

He signs it with a self satisfied flourish and tucks everything into an envelope, picturing Yuto reading his words with a smile on his face. He didn't know anything about Yuto's physical appearance at all, and he honestly didn't really care. He was a little curious, but regardless of if this Yuto boy was big or small, horse-faced, or squish-faced, or angelic looking or full of piercings with crazily dyed hair, he knew that he liked him. He liked the way Yuto thought, the way he wrote out his thoughts, and the caring way he asked questions. He liked that Yuto called him a friend. He liked being able to call Yuto his friend―his best friend. And he knew that he liked Yuto for who he was, not what he looked like. So he never asked for a description, or a photograph. And so, it was in this manner, with the steady stream of letters, that Keito's first year of high school came to a close.

Keito is the one that falls through on the letter writing in their second year of high school. In his defense, it wasn't really his fault. Or, it wasn't _all_ his fault. It had been a week into the summer holiday, and he'd been entrusted by his father to negotiate a business deal with one of the smaller yakuza groups flanking the south side of their territory. It was a small, trivial thing that had for the most part been cleared up already. A good, first time negotiation to get Keito's feet wet before he dived into the heavy stuff. It wasn't supposed to be anything all that dramatic. Keito was anxious to do well, enthusiastic at being entrusted with his opportunity. He didn't want to let his father―or the family―down.

He had thought things had been going smoothly, until one of the negotiators pulled out a gun. The bullets missed their mark, and it turned into a fight, guns and knives and fists all being used, and in the midst of it all the metal siding of one of the exteriors of the buildings they were sandwiched between collapsed, Keito not moving fast enough, buried under the wreckage. Afterwards he didn't really remember being squashed; but he barely remembered going to do the negotiation at all. He woke up in the hospital a few weeks later, with broken bones and an amazing amount of bruising, and he was told that he was lucky to be alive.

Everything was hazy, his head pounding―a symptom of the severe concussion, they informed him―and he was kept in the hospital for another few weeks to heal properly. The family all seemed to be extremely upset with the way things had gone down, but none of his uncles or clan brothers blamed him. His caretaker―the lovely, loyal man―practically lived at the hospital, rarely leaving Keito's side. Keito didn't know what he'd do without Shoon. And it was Shoon that told him, during his last few days at the hospital, that Yuto had been writing him.

Yuto had written him seven letters over the course of his hospitalization, each one more frantic and anxious than the last. Keito hadn't sent him anything in nearly two months, and as he looked at the dates they were written, Keito could tell that Yuto had tried to wait for a response, but had gotten more concerned and more impatient as time had passed. Keito felt rather guilty. He had disappeared on his only friend, without warning or due explanation, and he knew he owed Yuto an apology.

He sat down to respond, and he realized that he didn't know what to write. Yes, he could tell Yuto that he had been in the hospital, but after that he wasn't sure what to say. He couldn't tell him the truth. But what was something that happened to normal people that could put him in the hospital for such an extended period of time, without it being some sort of surgery that having been scheduled prior? He wasn't sure, so he asked his caretaker what he told people when he had unexplainable injuries. Shoon looked surprised at the question, but answered honestly. Car crash. Keito decided to go with it.

He tells Yuto he was in a horrific car crash, detailing the collision with a nauseating guilt in his stomach. He was a terrible liar. He hated lying to Yuto, even if it was necessary. Up until this point he'd managed to simply skirt around any mentions of his yakuza activities. He had told half truths and vague descriptions that hadn't quite been lies. This however, was blatant. He was completely fabricating his tale, and it made him extremely uncomfortable. Despite that, he felt Yuto at least needed to be told that he hadn't intentionally stopped writing. Yuto needed to know that he was sorry, and that he still wanted to be his friend. And so, he lied.

His lie was accepted easily, which made Keito feel even more guilty. Yuto trusted him, and he was betraying that trust with this false story. But he didn't have a choice, if he wanted to keep Yuto in his life. Yuto was extremely concerned about Keito's health, his responding letters full of assurances that he wasn't mad and questions about how he was doing, what his injuries were, and if there was going to be any permanent damage. Keito answered those as best he could, trying to tell the truth. He told Yuto he was fine, that he would even be well enough to return to school immediately, and not to worry. Still, in the weeks to follow each of Yuto's letters asked for an update on his health, and Keito gave them to him, trying to assure his pen pal of his well being.

The rest of Keito's year wasn't nearly as dramatic. He did need to go through some rehabilitation therapy for his mobility, his hips having been crushed by the metal sheeting. As a result he couldn't participate in physical activities once school resumed, which meant no more hiding his tattoo and changing in the back of class. He didn't get much of a chance to participate in the family's activities, his father wanting him to rest and recover, and so as a result he had plenty of free time. He spent that time working on his calligraphy, his caretaker working with him, and in the months of emptiness he got to be extremely good at it, to his great pride. His letters that he sent to Yuto were works of art, the other boy telling him so, his flattery always making Keito blush.

Yuto's year meanwhile, seemed to be very busy. He performed on his drums for multiple school functions, was the star of the photography club, and participated in every sporting event the school organized. He seemed to have lots of friends, telling Keito all about his school life, about the kids in his class and his cram school. Yuto had already started looking into various universities, thinking about his future. Keito had never considered university, and honestly he didn't think his father would allow it.

Keito needed to prove he would be a good clan leader. He needed to earn that position, and he didn't have time to be playing around with school and pretending to be a normal teenager much longer. He was afraid that Yuto was a part of that normal teenager lifestyle his father was beginning to seriously disapprove of, and he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep up contact with his friend. But the thought of no longer writing Yuto made Keito feel defiant, and protective. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that when the time came, and his father asked, he wasn't going to give up Yuto easily. Keito knew these things, and he accepted them, but when Yuto―oblivious to his internal strife―excitedly asked him what school he wanted to go to, Keito felt a twinge of regret.

Time passed happily, without any major upsets or changes, and before he knew it, Keito was in his last year of high school. Keito had been allowed to resume working with the clan, his responsibilities growing with each success he achieved, and he was becoming very busy, doing negotiations and participating in late night battles with enemies. His life was a fast paced, death defying adrenaline rush, and it was in the months of his last year of school that he started getting tattoos in earnest, his whole back a mural of sakura surrounding a hanya mask. He thought it was beautiful, and he was very proud of his tattoo, but he was also very aware of what it symbolized to the rest of society, and he grew to be extremely paranoid during school hours. He didn't want to be exposed.

While Keito was becoming a proper yakuza, Yuto was gearing up for university. He had decided that he wanted to become a school teacher, and was studying relentlessly. Due to this his letters nearly completely stopped coming, Keito not hearing from him for a solid month once. It was saddening, this feeling that Yuto was drifting away; more upsetting than Keito had expected it to be, and he fell into a state of depression, checking the mail twice a day in the hopes that he had simply missed something the first time. Yuto was forgetting about him, he figured. He had finally grown too boring for his friend. But once again, he was wrong about Yuto.

It was during their winter break, only a week before Christmas, when he got another letter from the other boy. This one was filled with apologies for being silent for so long, Yuto explaining that he was spending every minute of free time studying. He told Keito that even though he hadn't written, he had thought about Keito every day, and he had missed him terribly. When Keito read that, his heart leapt into his throat, and it was then that Keito realized that perhaps Yuto was a bigger, more important presence in his life than that of a mere friend. Yuto was someone he treasured, more than anything or anyone he'd ever treasured before. He was someone Keito loved.

Keito's response to him was immediate, and it was as though a barrier had been broken, the letters flowing thick and fast between them, and all fears Keito had of Yuto leaving him behind completely evaporated. The final proof that Yuto wasn't forgetting him came one evening right before school was to start back up when he opened his most recent letter to find that the other boy signed it with a phone number instead of his name. Yuto explained underneath that he had realized that once he returned to school it would be hard to keep up communication properly if they only wrote each other, and he proposed that they could text, that way they could carry on immediate conversations, and they wouldn't lose touch. Keito felt a smile blooming on his lips, and he clutched the letter―so full of proof that the boy he had fallen in love with cared about him―to his chest.

Keito felt a jittery excitement in his stomach as he entered Yuto's number into his phone, and he hesitantly tapped out a message to the other boy, checking over it repeatedly before sending it. He felt a slightly choking anxiety in his throat, as he stared at the screen of his phone. Yuto responded in moments, his text a mass of extremely excited, exclamation point littered phrases that made Keito feel elated, a huge smile on his face. This, he felt, was perfect. They texted back and forth for the rest of the night, the rapid-fire responses a new element that was extremely satisfying.

In the weeks to come Keito became glued to his phone. He texted Yuto constantly. Between classes, during lunch, and on his way home from school he was always on his phone. He sent Yuto a text first thing every morning, and it was always the last thing he did before going to bed. He was hopelessly in love. Yuto was perfect, Yuto was amazing, and he'd had no idea how he'd managed to fall so hard for a boy whom he'd never met, whose face he had never seen.

The fact that they'd never seen what the other looked like wasn't something he really minded, but the ever curious Yuto brought it up one evening, a few months into their texting. They discussed that fact for a while, and it resulted in the two of them resolving to send each other photos of themselves first thing the next morning. Keito had a hard time falling asleep that night, anticipation buzzing in his chest. He woke the following morning to a notification from his phone that Yuto had messaged him, and he blinked sleep out of his eyes, opening the message. He wasn't prepared for what he saw.

Yuto was _gorgeous._ The other boy had obviously taken the photo as soon as he'd woken up, his black hair a splayed mess on top of his head, his brown eyes still holding a trace of sleepiness as he looked up at Keito through the photo. He was smiling, his eyes twinkling, his thin pink lips curved pleasantly upwards. He had a strong jaw line, nearly everything about him thin and long, and he had these freckles that were just astoundingly adorable. He was still wrapped up in his blankets, a thick white comforter flopped half over his head, sunlight shining in from some unseen window, illuminating his skin. Underneath the photo, Yuto had typed out a morning greeting, before telling Keito that it was his turn to send a picture.

Keito rolled onto his back, hiding his tattoos just in case, and he tried to arrange his features into something pleasant, snapping a few photos before frantically wondering if he'd taken too long in his response, choosing one and sending it back. Hopefully Yuto wouldn't be disappointed. He wasn't nearly as handsome as his friend, he felt. But Yuto's response was an amazed vote of approval for Keito's muscular arms, which made Keito blush. He told Yuto this, his friend telling him that he was cute. That just made him blush more.

They began sending photos more and more often along with their words, Keito's phone soon full of saved pictures of Yuto. He always had to be careful when he sent pictures, having to hide any evidence of his father’s―and his―profession. When Yuto asked why he never showed his back, Keito panicked for nearly an hour before remembering the lie he'd told his friend the year before, desperately deciding to reuse it. He told Yuto he had terrible scars from the car crash he'd been in. Yuto promptly dropped the subject, apologizing for being nosy. Keito felt extremely guilty.

Soon, winter turned to spring, and one morning Keito woke to Yuto having bombarded his phone with messages, his handsome best friend's words informing him that Yuto'd been accepted into the university he'd been aiming for, and he was due to start there the following semester. Keito was extremely proud of the other boy, and he informed him of that fact, showering Yuto with praise. Their graduations were fast approaching, and Keito had his own future to think about. It was about time to stop pretending that he was normal. That fact scared him. He liked pretending, because it felt like he could still bond with Yuto, the boy he'd grown to love so much. Because he knew that in reality, Yuto's world and his own were two separate entities that would never overlap. But despite his wishing, soon graduation was upon them, and they were no longer high school students.

It was then that, once again, everything changed. Yuto's texts immediately became full of descriptions of preparations to go to university. He was moving out of his family's house, the distance simply too far, and he texted Keito the details of the whole process of buying furniture and looking for an apartment. Yuto seemed to be extremely excited about the whole thing, and Keito was happy for him, responding to all of Yuto's texts positively, trying to support him as best he could.

It was one night as Keito was lying in bed that their conversation took a serious turn, and Yuto confessed that he was scared. He rarely ever voiced any insecurities; Keito was always the more nervous one of the two, and it took Keito by surprise. Yuto told him that he was afraid of living on his own, and that he didn't want to do it, sure that it would be miserably lonely. He announced that he had a spare bedroom in the apartment his family had found for him, and he said he was considering looking for a roommate. There was a pause in Yuto's typing, and then, to Keito's amazement, Yuto asked if he'd like to be that roommate.

Keito stared at the screen of his phone in disbelief. Yuto wanted him to move in with him? They'd never even met in person, and yet the other boy was willing to give Keito this chance? His chest tightened painfully at that thought. Yuto put so much faith in him. He wanted so badly to say yes. This was his best opportunity. He was being given the perfect situation in which to make Yuto fall in love with him. He could sweep his dream boy off of his feet, and work to make Yuto as happy as Yuto had made him. It would be perfect. Despite that, he knew it wasn't the logical thing to do. He had a responsibility to his clan to stay here. He was supposed to work hard, and become the next leader. Love wasn't part of that equation. It was with a deep regret that he brushed off Yuto's offer, just sending him some comforting words and going to bed.

He woke after only a few hours of sleep with a new resolve. He was doing it. Yuto wanted him. Yuto needed him, and he was going to the other boy. Before he could talk himself out of it Keito drug out his suitcase, packing hastily, trying to stay quiet. He threw in clothes for all kinds of weather, preparing, because he knew that once he left his father's house, he wasn't coming back. He couldn't come back. It was the family, or Yuto, and he was choosing Yuto. His middle school pen pal had changed his life and become his whole world, and he reached under his bed, pulling out the box of Yuto's letters, smiling as he stacked it on top of his suitcase.

He wrote two notes, one for his father, explaining to him what he'd done, and another to his caretaker, the person he would miss the most. He hoped that Shoon would understand. He needed Yuto, and he couldn't have Yuto and the clan. He folded the pages up, stamping them in his own blood and leaving them on his desk, and without further ado, he slipped out of the house, off of the estate grounds, and into the night, his heart pounding in his chest. They wouldn't notice his absence for a few more hours, until he didn't come out of his room for breakfast. After that he was on the run. He just hoped he could get out of their territory before then.

He used the address on the envelopes from Yuto's letters to navigate where he was to go, taking the earliest train possible and riding it as the sun came up. It wasn't until he arrived at the Nakajima residence, his heart pounding in his chest, that he realized that in the rush he'd forgotten to tell Yuto he was coming. He adjusted his grip on his suitcase, the anxiety making him nearly nauseous, and he was about to knock on the door when he got a notification on his phone. It made him jump, dropping his precious box of letters, and he cursed to himself, digging the device out of his pocket. It had been Yuto, wishing him a good morning like he did every morning. Keito took a deep breath, responding with a simple message to Yuto to open his front door.

The silence after he'd sent that message made Keito tense. He kept internally running through everything that could go wrong, his nausea only growing, engulfing him as the seconds ticked on. He just stood there on the doorstep, waiting, his whole body quivering, and somehow this was worse than negotiations with hostile yakuza members. Somehow this was more important than any battle or territory patrol he'd ever been on, and his breath caught in his throat as he heard through the wood of the door, a voice he'd never heard before, talking fast, its tones betraying confusion and disbelief, and then suddenly the door swung open, and there he was.

Yuto was even more beautiful in real life, and he was tall, Keito surprised by just how tall he was. The familiar face was blinking at him in complete shock, Yuto's mouth slightly ajar, and Keito felt the blush growing on his cheeks. What was he supposed to do? What was he supposed to say? He just stared over at the boy he loved, taking him in for the first time, and he bit at his lip, feeling nearly paralyzed there under Yuto's gaze on the doorstep. But then Yuto broke into a huge smile, and he leapt at him, throwing his arms around Keito's neck, and it was all Keito could do to hug him back, burying his face in Yuto's shoulder, taking a deep breath and letting all of his stress drain out of his body, because somehow, when Yuto pulled away and looked into his eyes, he knew that he loved this boy. And he knew that no matter what, as long as he had Yuto, everything was going to be okay.


End file.
